We're almost to the part where a ray of sunshine and hope breaks into the story. But not yet. Today's chapter is pure heartbreak and so incomprehensible.

Art credit: One Morning at the Gates of the Louvre by Edouard Debat-Ponson

The fight for liberty spreads to the Alps. "The ground is strewed with dying and dead. The soldiers hear a chorus of voices ringing out above them. It is the Vaudois chanting a psalm. God is their helper, and to him give they thanks."

(My apologies for the mispronunciation in the recording--I think I read it as Vandois rather than Vaudois...at least some of the time.)

Meanwhile, back in England...

Reading the Bible and thinking for yourself continue to be dangerous enterprises. At least now you can choose between being buried alive or being burned at the stake.

Art credit: The Edicts of Charles V: Jean August Hendrik Leys

From the ashes, liberty.

​Art: Wedding of Catherine de Medici to Henry

As we get a clearer picture of what was happening in Europe during the century after Columbus opened up a New World, we see the importance of the timing. How could Freedom possibly have gotten a foothold without a new land for its planting?

I said it before--I'll say it again--today, when you go to the church of your choice to worship, or if you choose to not worship at all, think of these martyrs who sacrificed their lives so that you and I have that choice. And if your Bible is collecting dust on a shelf, think of the privilege that is yours to own your own copy and the price that was paid to bring it to you. Open it and read it. Preferably aloud.

Art credit: Sir Thomas More's Farewell to His Daughter by Edward Matthew Ward

Art credit: Martin Luther Translating the Bible at Warburg Castle, 1521

Art credit: The Miracle of St. Francis Xavier by Peter Paul Rubens